Obama camp takes more than money from Hollywood, tech stars

6/14/12 7:49 AM EDT

Much has been made of the star-studded high-dollar fundraising that President Barack Obama has come to depend on in 2012. But his campaign is getting a lot more from Hollywood and Silicon Valley than big checks.

It is getting some unorthodox advice on marketing the president, reports Bloomberg Businessweek. Before taking his job as Obama's campaign manager, Jim Messina met with executives from Google, Apple, Facebook and DreamWorks and he has continued to tap their expertise.

"At DreamWorks Studios, Steven Spielberg spent three hours explaining how to capture an audience’s attention and offered a number of ideas that will be rolled out before Election Day," Businessweek's Joshua Green reported Thursday.

"An early example of Spielberg’s influence is RomneyEconomics.com, a website designed by the Obama team to tell the story—a horror story, by their reckoning—of Mitt Romney’s career at Bain Capital. Afterward, Spielberg insisted that Messina sit down with the DreamWorks marketing team. Hollywood movie studios are expert, as presidential campaigns also must be, at spending huge sums over a few weeks to reach and motivate millions of Americans."

Google's Eric Schmidt gave Messina advice about growing a large operation quickly, Apple's Steve Jobs pushed him on mobile technology and Vogue's Anna Wintour showed him how the fashion world could contribute, Green reports.

The full story , which takes a deep dive into the schooling and mindset of Messina, is well worth the read.